Wow. Third log already. Time is flying. 

So, the dawn is coming for the beta. But for now, what’s changed?

Well, for visual aesthetic, the UI hasn’t changed much, but icons for kills, deaths and coins have been added. Transitions for when the player has weapons and no weapons, notifications for boosts or decrease of stats. All good features which give the user some more information and smoothness when in the game. Another big mention was binding the world and player UI. There is now damage pop ups informing the user how much healthy a monster has lost per hit of a weapon, or how many coins they got from a loot bag. For now it’s strictly damage and loot, but may be expanded to other entities in the future. 

In the game world, the timespan and sunlight has been adjusted slightly. Still working on the sun-glitch bug but will be ironed out eventually. Additionally, sounds have been added.  Footsteps remaining in the game accompanied by floor splats for when players or monsters die, hurt effects, and respawn. More sounds will be added like button clicks for HUDs and weapon pick up/drops. Sound is a gateway to immersion. I will definitely be looking for an intro song and adding cutscenes/intro too. 

Monsters have been re-developed. Inheritance was a major missing key component, a mistake I made at the very start, which has finally been corrected. 

There will be a major focus on difficulty and AI behaviour of these monsters in a future devlog. But, now they all act accordingly with no difference of base functions, easier to manage and update my end too! 

Individually, I’m looking at ways to differentiate them. Going forward, this section is going to be extremely spicy and experimental. It won’t be like anything people have seen before in terms of games they’ve played vs what they expect monsters to be like.

Health and stamina boosts (soda and medikit) have been made more accessible. Although, it will sway back in the future and be more balanced based on the users needs, rather than wants. (You get hurt a lot means you’ll see it in the shop more frequently, or the opposite even, same for stamina). The base weapons havent been touched as of yet, with the simple attack and do damage functions still being steady and useable. 

Big things which have to be decided moving forward:

• How are we going to smoothly remove monsters after the time period is over?
• Where does this demo go? Further into the map? Exploration? 
• What’s the goal? Why are we doing this?
• What’s the endgame? Is there even one?
• Stranger. Movement? Static? His own shop or a dodgy backstreet dealer? Dynamic inventory?
• Monster growth? Difficulty and/or Dynamic Difficulty.

Some additional ideas for the future: 

• Ironman Mode (no deaths allowed OR, no boosts allowed)
• Global Leaderboards 

A roadmap for the next 6 months has been created, with major points of interests random events included. It won’t be released publicly, but will be followed

To wrap this devlog up, I wish you happy holidays, a safe new year and see you soon.